The present invention is described in connection with the shipping and display of spools of ribbon, but its applicability is not limited to such use. Spools of ribbon are customarily displayed for selection and purchase on inclined shelves. Such a display usually involves ribbons different from one another in various respects, such as color, texture, material and the like. Ribbons of a given type are placed on the shelf in a row, with the spools of ribbon of different types being carried on the same shelf in adjacent rows. Usually the shelf is designed to receive a limited number of spools of ribbon in a given row. The purchaser will select the ribbon he wishes by removing from the shelf the lowermost spool of the type that he desires, and the remaining spools in that row will then roll down to the front of the inclined shelf, where a ledge or the like will retain the row on the shelf, ready for subsequent selection and removal of a ribbon spool.
It is desirable that the spools of a given type remain in the same row, but when a given row of spools becomes shortened because of the removal of spools therefrom by purchasers gaps are produced at the upper ends of those rows, and spools from adjacent rows may tend to move or fall over into those gaps, which is obviously undesirable.
In addition, the store where the ribbons are displayed is presented with the problem of maintaining a suitable inventory of spools of all desired types on display, but the store for obvious reasons does not wish to have an excessive inventory on hand so as to keep the ribbon display filled. For example, usually ribbons are displayed in rows of four, and the store does not reorder spools of a particular ribbon style until there is only one ribbon of that style left on the shelf. The store then orders three of such ribbons to fill up the shelf row corresponding to that particular type of ribbon.